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The Tonkünstler Orchestra has roots stretching back to the vibrant Viennese culture of the early 20th century and even beyond. The group has recorded extensively and has attracted world-class conductors from beyond Austria and central Europe.

The Tonkünstler Orchestra was founded in Vienna in 1907 with 83 musicians. The group is known in German as the Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich or Musical Artists' Orchestra of Lower Austria, and its name pays homage to the Tonkünstler-Sozietät that presented works by Haydn and Mozart in the late 18th century. The group's first concert featured works by Beethoven, Grieg, Liszt, and Karl Goldmark. In 1913, the orchestra gave the premiere performance of Schoenberg's Gürre-Lieder. Its activities contracted during World War I, and it was replaced by a new Wiener Tonkünstler Orchestra in 1933, with Leopold Reichwein as conductor. The group continued to operate through the Nazi era, mostly under the name Gausymphonieorchester Niederdonau and mostly in direct support of the German war effort. The year 1946 brought the name Niederösterreichisches Tonkünstlerorchester and a new conductor, Kurt Wöss. After a 2002 restructuring, the present name was applied. Major conductors in the 20th century included Gustav Koslik (1951-1964), Heinz Wallberg (1964-1975), Miltiades Caridis (1978-1988, the group's first conductor not from Austria or Germany), and Brazil's Isaac Karabtchevsky (1998-1994, the orchestra's first non-European leader). The orchestra's recording catalog dates back to the LP era; an early digital release was a 2008 recording of Haydn's Die Schöpfung on the TON 4/Zebralution label.

The Tonkünstler Orchestra performs in Vienna at the Golden Hall of the Musikverein. It also has a second headquarters in Sankt Pölten in Lower Austria province, where it is state-supported, performing at the Festspielhaus Sankt Pölten. The ensemble serves as orchestra-in-residence at the Grafenegg Festival outside Vienna. Conductors during the 21st century have been an internationally prominent group, including Carlos Kalmar (2000-2003), Kristjan Järvi (2004-2009), Andrés Orozco-Estrada (2009-2014), and Yutaka Sado (2015-2025). In 2025, Fabien Gabel was scheduled to take up the baton. A major recording under Järvi was one of Leonard Bernstein's Mass for the Chandos label in 2009. The Tonkünstler Orchestra has also recorded for the Preiser Records, Oehms Classics, and Wergo labels, among others. In 2024, the group moved to Naxos and released a recording of orchestral works by Franz von Suppé. By that time, the group's recording history included more than 20 albums. ~ James Manheim

The Wiener Symphoniker (Vienna Symphony Orchestra) is a mainstay in European orchestral music, having premiered works that have become standard repertoire in the orchestral world. While its older neighbor, the Wiener Philharmoniker, may get more attention, the Wiener Symphoniker has cemented its role as a world-class orchestra.

The Wiener Symphoniker was founded in 1900 as the Wiener Concertverein. The founder and first conductor of the orchestra was Ferdinand Löwe, who established the new orchestra to present more concerts to the citizenry and for the performance of new compositions. The orchestra's premiere concert took place at the Wiener Musikverein on October 30, 1900. Löwe, a student of Anton Bruckner's, led the Wiener Symphoniker in the premiere of Bruckner's ninth symphony in 1903. In 1913, the orchestra moved its performing venue to the newly opened Wiener Konzerthaus. Due to financial concerns following World War I, the orchestra merged with the Wiener Tonkünstlerorchester in 1919. Löwe served as chief conductor until 1925. He was followed by Otto Gottesmann and Wilhelm Furtwängler. In 1933, the orchestra was renamed the Wiener Symphoniker. Oswald Kabasta led the orchestra from 1934-1938. Under Kabasta, the orchestra embarked on its first international tour to England and Italy. In 1938, following the invasion of Austria, the orchestra was brought under municipal control and was used for propaganda during World War II. The orchestra was disbanded in September of 1944.

Following the war, the Wiener Symphoniker was re-established in 1945 and gave its first post-war concert in September under the leadership of Hans Swarowsky and Josef Krips. Since 1946, the orchestra has taken part in and been a major sponsor of the Bregenzer Festspiele. Herbert von Karajan (1950-1960) and Wolfgang Sawallisch (1960-1970) are credited most with the revival of the Viennese sound for which the Wiener Symphoniker is known. In 1962, the Theater an der Wien reopened, and the Wiener Symphoniker has since performed there for staged productions. Since Sawallisch, the chief conductors for the orchestra have included Carlo Maria Giulini (1973-1976), Gennady Rozhdestvensky (1981-1983), and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (1991-1996). Philippe Jordan became the chief conductor in 2014, with a contract running through 2021. In 2018, the Wiener Symphoniker announced Andrés Orozco-Estrada as its next chief conductor. Orozco-Estrada is set to take the baton in 2021. Among the illustrious names who have guest conducted the orchestra are Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, and Claudio Abbado.

The Wiener Symphoniker can be heard on hundreds of albums on major labels such as Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI Classics, and Orfeo, among many others. Since 2012, the orchestra has also recorded for its own Wiener Symphoniker label, on which it has recorded works by composers such as Mahler, Bruckner, and Berlioz. Under Jordan, the orchestra has recorded a full cycle of Beethoven's symphonies. The first, Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3, was released in 2017. The final two individual albums of this cycle, Symphonies Nos. 6 & 8 and Symphony No. 9, as well as the complete cycle set, were released in 2019. ~ Keith Finke

Although he wasn't a member of the similarly named Strauss family of Vienna, Oscar Straus managed to make a major for himself in the field of operetta in the first half of the 20th century. It was Johannes Brahms who gave the teenage Oscar Straus his first serious recommendations, to Max Bruch and other notable teachers.

Johann Strauss II advised the young Oscar Straus to acquire practical experience in conducting for the theater, and between 1893 and 1896 the younger musician worked in theater orchestras in Bratislava, Brno, Teplitz, Mainz, and Hamburg, and also began writing works for the stage, as well as light orchestral pieces (known as "solon music") during this period. He was engaged as a composer in a cabaret while serving in a conductor's post in Berlin, and enjoyed his first major successes with a series of songs such as "Die Musik kommt" and "Der lustige Ehemann."

On his return to Vienna in 1904, Straus entered the most successful phase of his career, most notably composing The Waltz Dream (Ein Walzertraum), which was premiered at the Carltheater in March of 1907, and nearly rivaled the popularity of Lehar's The Merry Widow. Der tapfere Soldat (The Chocolate Soldier), premiered in 1908, later became a special success in America, but this was his last major stage hit for over a decade. In 1920, he returned to form somewhat with Der letzte Walzer, which featured in its lead Fritzi Massary, who became the focal point of the writing for many of his subsequent works. His international successes included the London production of Mother of Pearl and Drei Walzer, a 1935 work that used the music of Johann Strauss elder and younger in its first two acts and Oscar Straus' own music in its final act, which was a huge hit in Paris. Straus also wrote some film music, for such features as Jenny Lind (1930), The Smiling Lieutenant (l932), The Southerner (1932), One Hour With You (1932), Die Herren von Maxim (1933), Fruhlingsstimmen (1934), Land Without Music (1935), and Make a Wish (1935).

Straus' movie career was poised to take a leap forward in 1939 when he was selected and contracted by director Ludwig Berger to write the music for Alexander Korda's production of The Thief of Baghdad, a grand Technicolor fantasy film starring Sabu, Conrad Veidt, June Duprez, and John Justin. His score, along with Berger's approach to directing the film, were ultimately rejected by Korda, however, and Straus was paid off for his contract, but his music was never used. In 1939, following the Nazi-inspired German takeover of Austria, he left Vienna for Paris and later New York and Hollywood, where he saw his stage work The Chocolate Soldier filmed by MGM in 1941, in a version starring Nelson Eddy and Rise Stevens, with a new storyline (borrowed from The Guardsman), since the George Bernard Shaw play from which it had been adapted couldn't legally be brought to the screen.

Straus returned to Austria in 1948, where he wrote a pastische work entitled Die Musik kommt. His last major success took the form of his music for Max Ophuls' 1950 movie La Ronde, although he did finish one more operetta, Bozena, in 1952. He also revised several of his earlier works. Straus' son Erwin was a celebrated pianist whose recordings included versions of his father's most celebrated waltzes. Ein Walzertraum remains a much-loved work internationally, and several of his other operettas are still performed in Germany and Austria. ~ Bruce Eder

Robert Stolz was one of the more successful composers of Viennese operetta and popular song in the early 20th century, ranking somewhere behind Franz Lehár and Oscar Straus. He was also among the relative handful of European composers of operetta to find a home in Hollywood, where he worked during the '40s.

The son of Jacob Stolz, a music teacher, and Ida Bondy, a concert pianist, music came naturally to Stolz as a child -- he made his recital debut at age seven with Johannes Brahms, a family friend, in the audience. Stolz attended the Vienna Conservatory, where he studied under Joseph Fuchs, and later with composer Engelbert Humperdinck in Berlin. He held various low-ranking musical posts in Graz, Marburg, and Salzburg, but at this time, his aspirations were directed toward serious classical music. A meeting with Johann Strauss II in 1899 turned Stolz's attention toward the writing of operetta and songs, and he wrote his first light opera that year, Studentenulke, which was premiered in Marburg.

Beginning in 1907, Stolz was the conductor of the Theatre an der Wien, where he became associated at the podium with several successes by other composers, most notably Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow. His own success was initially confined to songs such as "Servus, Du!" -- one of his later songs, "Hallo du Susse Klingelfee," was sung by Jean Gabin in Paris. Stolz's first major hit in the field of operetta was Der Tanz ins Gluck, which came to the United States as Sky High in the early '20s. His work in the '20s consisted principally of writing and conducting cabaret songs in Berlin, and he also achieved some notable popularity writing movie musicals during the early sound era. Stolz remained in Germany right up until the late '30s, writing operettas and movie scores until 1937, when the country's Nazi politics became untenable. He came to the United States in 1940, and a year later was working in Hollywood, conducting for the screen and also composing the scores for movies such as Spring Parade and It Happened Tomorrow.

He returned to Vienna in 1946, and among his other musical endeavors in the decades that followed, Stolz wrote the music for the ice revues, as well as conducting numerous concerts and making dozens of recordings of both his own and other composers' light operatic material. Among the best of these was his recording of Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus, for Decca/London Records. Stolz also recorded highlights from many of his most beloved works, including Himmelblaue Traum, Fruhjahrsparade, and Venus in Seide. He became a much-loved musical figure in Europe, particularly in the German-speaking world -- he was made an honorary citizen of Vienna, and was honored in 1972 with a statue in Graz, where he was born.

Stolz's music is not quite of the quality of Lehár or Johann Strauss, but his operettas and songs still have a rich melodic allure. They evoke some measure of wistful nostalgia today, but otherwise remain as powerful as they were in the '20s and '30s. ~ Bruce Eder